Tuesday, September 18, 2007

for some reason the temperature in our office is so cold that you could leave milk out on my desk in the morning and you could still enjoy it with your cereal at the end of the day. this means that no matter how well i plan my outfit for the day i always end up wrapping myself in a bright red fleece jacket that i found stuffed away in one of the file cabinets. i have no idea whose jacket this is. and it is about 6 sizes too big for me. but i have now claimed it. a bit like the 'orphan annie' mug.

the walk with maz across the bridge back to our cars at the end of the day has fast become one of the favorite parts of my day. firstly i get to defrost. secondly, we are always bordering on hysterics. i love that i can share the nuances of my day with someone who 'gets' it because she is actually there. to witness. i had this with m2 at CAA and i'm pretty spoiled to have it again with maz.

every day we relive some moment or escapade that has us both in throws of laughter. not pretty, dainty giggles but doubled up, choking, tears streaming down cheeks, laughter. and there is inevitably someone that walks by with an amused look wondering what is so funny that two girls who from the outset appear relatively normal, are falling over themselves laughing.

one day last week i was in a meeting with my boss. the red fleece was wrapped around me so i was looking extra unprofessional. luckily i can get away with oddities like this - i just smile and say "i'm from new zealand". like the day i told my sales rep from hard rock cafe that i liked her cologne. i know cologne is what guy's wear. and my rep is a woman. so it was just a mistake on my part. but when she raised her eyebrow instead of saying 'oh i mean perfume', i said 'oh, that's what we say in new zealand - cologne for both men and women'. which is a total lie. but this nz excuse seems to cover all infractions of normal behavior. i think i learned this from m2. whenever i'd do something she thought strange, like order hot water at restaurants, she'd explain apologetically 'she's from new zealand'. and all was forgiven.

anyway, my boss tells me that this meeting is my 60 day review. my jaw drops open. not subtle. but i had no idea - it seemed to me like i just started two weeks ago.

as he begins to talk to me about how things are going, i hear a panicking voice outside his office calling my name. loudly. let it be established, for the record, that while you are in your 60 day review it's probably not ideal to have people yelling your name out across the office in a voice that indicates trouble. so i gingerly sidle over to the door and find out that the courier is here to pick up this huge mailout i'm doing, but the boxes of supplies to be mailed are no where to be found. how you can misplace ten thousand brochures i don't know. but they are not where they should be. and this is causing significant consternation.

so my ever-patient boss 'excuses' me to go deal with the drama. i head down to the loading dock to locate the missing mountain of boxes. the courier waits impatiently while chain smoking. i grab a large heavy steel trolley (decided not to take on the fork lift) and start hunting for my brochures. once i find them i have to spend ten minutes stacking them - limited upper body strength not helping my cause at all.

i finally get back to the loading dock and thankfully courier guy stuck around and is sucking on what looks like his 7th cigarette. so then i decide to be helpful - you know, 'hand' each box to him. i was about six feet above him on the dock, while his van was parked in the driveway below. so i'm teetering around in heels and a skirt (once again can reiterate how great this must look with an oversized fire engine red fleece) and trying to make courier guy's job easier when suddenly the trolley's steel mass becomes unbalanced and two of the wheels roll off the dock resulting in all of the boxes crashing down on the concrete below, narrowly missing courier guy. paper is strewn every where. courier guy is unimpressed and i am using all my strength to hold on to the trolley to prevent it too, from falling.

this could have been a tragedy. afterall the poor man could have been severely injured by several thousand spamalot themed broadway season brochures...so that isn't really funny. but at 6pm after a day of full of moments like this, it is funny. unable-to-breathe-because-i'm-laughing-so-hard-funny.

**i really like tea. sigh. and you probably already know this. if i know you well enough - i'll walk into your house. say hello. hug you fiercely. and then go into your kitchen and boil water for tea. holley knows me so well the hot water is waiting. as is her cupboard full of gourmet teas to choose from. and great mug selections.

twinings earl grey will always be my number one favorite. it is the tea my dad drinks. loose leaf earl grey. black. for as long as i can remember he'd come home from work, we'd have dinner, and then he would have tea. with sweet dates. as a child i wasn't allowed to drink tea - so i'd get to have hot water with a bit of sugar, and i'd pretend.

pg tips is a recent favorite. i would start every morning in london with a cup of this and toast with nutella. it was the most perfect breakfast and that might have had something to do with the fact that some one else would make it for me and that's always lovely. i bought a box of this back to the states with me and whenever i have it, it takes me back to that small kitchen and looking out of the window hoping for sun and often seeing grey clouds hinting at rain instead.

marabeth introduced me to kombucha green tea. it's a tea that actually makes you feel like you are becoming healthier with each sip. and then there are chai lattes. m2's all time favorite drink. which are more like desserts then tea. but oh so good.

**

m2 and jc came over last night for a table time reunion. they were a little disoriented because of the mix up in seating arrangements. the other change was that jc now has his own laptop (a mac powerbook that i'm only a little bit very envious of) so we are all a lot quieter because he isn't telling stories about his day and m2 and i no longer have to listen and feign interest. it was nice to all hang out again though and it was just like old times with m2 ordering me to make her food (and then eating half of it) and jc trying to earn his stripes as a zilla-hunter.

**

random request:

if you can facepaint and you will be in nashville on the night of the 28th of september let me know.

alternatively if you cannot facepaint but you can say in a calm voice 'hey kid, you may not look like spiderman but i just painted your face for free so stop complaining.' give me a call too.

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about me

my blog now lives here.
i have an affinity for certain words over others. i start sentences with 'so' a lot. and although i have a masters degree in publishing and editing i have don't care to employ the rules of grammar or start sentences with capital letters. i like the idea of sunrises more than the reality of getting up at dawn. i am a shoulder dancer. i have a love/hate relationship with my freckles. i often create lists. i do not create lists for things that most people create lists for however, like shopping lists, or lists of books to read. my lists are more along the lines of 'things i wish i had said in the moment, but didn't'.
i love all things related to art. especially the creating of it.